


i'm always thinking of you

by VJR22_6



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: F/F, Pining, fits between richest duck and moonvasion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:48:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25756870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VJR22_6/pseuds/VJR22_6
Summary: Della muses on missing Penumbra in the space between realizing some hard truths and in her past choices coming to find her.
Relationships: Della Duck/Penumbra
Comments: 5
Kudos: 32





	i'm always thinking of you

**Author's Note:**

> Hello again!!! Another DT Ship Month prompt for you all, this one was "hug" for Dellumbra! I realized my last one didn't show up in the tumblr tags at all so I'll be posting my fics in full over there now, too, with the AO3 links in a reblog, so if that works better for you all you're welcome to read them there instead!
> 
> Be sure to drop me a comment if you liked this & thanks for reading!

“I missed you,” Della murmurs, laying her head in Penumbra’s lap. “So much.”

Penny traces a heart shape on Della’s cheek with the tip of one finger, and the pilot blushes so deeply looking up at her moon-born lover, whose hair is silhouetted by the golden sun behind her. Her dark eyes stand out against her pale purple skin, gazing down upon Della so gently. Her voice is so, so soft and sweet when she whispers her response. “I missed you too, Della. More than anything.”

The grass beneath her back is soft and cool, and the sunshine is shimmering down on her warm and gentle. She can hear the rustle of leaves in the trees some ways away, and beyond that the rush of the ocean and the calls of seagulls. Earth gets overwhelming sometimes in contrast to the silence, light gravity, and cold airless atmosphere of the moon, but in this warm sunny afternoon she feels comfortable and safe.

Penny caresses her cheek and she closes her eyes, feeling for all the world that she’s loved….

She opens them again to the softly swaying houseboat, alone and freezing. Silently reminded she’s alone, despite being surrounded by family. None of them have ever been to the moon, never stared into the void of space hoping with all her heart to be found, but only ever feeling lost. Penny is the only one who will ever truly understand the hopelessness she felt out there, because she’s the only one Della’s trusted with her feelings like that. The only one that seemed to listen when Della mentioned the hard things like missing people and feeling lonely.

But even the memories of good times with Penumbra are shrouded in a haze of apprehension. In aching retrospection because maybe Penny didn’t like her after all, maybe… maybe she was wrong to fall so hard and fast.

“Well, you can't spell frenemy without enemy….” Dewey’s words ring through her head. “Maybe she helped you escape the moon to get rid of you.”

Her own conclusion, too, from the same haunting moment. “Maybe… we were never friends.”

What hurts the most, though, was when she was tearing down her equipment. She finally got to hear Penny’s sweet, strong voice again and it… it was only to bear bad news. “Lunaris is bringing an army to destroy Earth. Della… he’s coming for your family.”

She thinks about how her old roommate’s voice broke, that crack on “family” because they both know that, to Della, the thing that has always mattered most is her family. Her twin and her uncle and her kids, oh, she loves her kids.

They're wonderful in every way. She wishes she could introduce Penny, maybe, and some of the other Moonlanders who she told about them. Dewey would love the attention, Huey would ask a million questions, and Louie would spend half his time trying to pocket some moon gold. And Webby, too! Sure, finding out she has a bonus daughter threw her for a little loop, but she loves her fiercest kid for being so much like herself.

Penny would like Webby, probably.

Della rolls over, her blanket tangling up until she tosses it aside in frustration. Ugh. The houseboat is so quiet. She misses Donald’s quacking snores from bygone days of bunking together, and misses Penny’s soft sleepy grumbles of more recent nights. She doesn’t miss the nights in the deserts of the moon, empty and cold and silent, but this is much of the same.

The room is moonlit, something new, but it’s something old too, in the sense that she’s still missing people she hasn’t seen again yet and that she feels a loneliness that cuts to her core. She can’t wait to give Don a hug again and to laugh with her cousins about stupid little things. And that day might not even come now because Lunaris is—well, he—he just—

“Ugh,” she shoves herself up and out of the hammock. “I need to take a walk.”

The mansion is dark. She doesn’t want to wake anybody walking around inside anyway, so she heads off the deck of the boat and out into the yard. The wind is rustling through the trees and the sensory input is helping unravel some of the anxiety in her head, giving her something more than silence.

She looks up at the starry sky, and the full moon glowing in it. She thinks of the home of sorts she made there, of golden blankets at night and telling stories during the day and feeling like the Moonlanders valued her. Maybe more than she deserved, looking back, she was just someone new and they liked her for that.

If they’re coming to—uh, if they’re coming, she can’t bring herself to admit the truth right now—maybe they didn’t really care at all. An act, or maybe they changed their minds, or… she doesn’t know. She was just grateful to not be so alone and it made everything feel so good and she wonders if any of it was more than a lie. Probably not.

Still, she looks up there at where she used to be, and thinks of Penumbra, of bouncing through their shared space in the light gravity, and she smiles. She sits on the grass, leans back, and looks to the moon, thinking of the last time she saw Penny.

“Seven, six, five….” she hugged Penny, and Penny almost hugged back that time, so lightly, but then on “four” she leapt back into the rocket. She thinks of that feeling, of the goodbye she never meant to make. And she thinks of how it felt to have the Moonlander in her arms, and it fuels her for what lies ahead.

“Miss ya, Penny,” she whispers at the moon, heart heavy. “I hope I see you again.”

And if she does, oh, how tight she’ll hug that wonderful warrior.


End file.
